Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Ex-Felon

Thank you for your posting on LawGuru.com, and the opportunity for me to help you by responding to your posting.

The answer to your question is no -- felonies stay on your record for life, unless you take other action, like an expungement, pardon, or certificate of rehabilitation, to help remove or minimize the effects of a conviction.

I hope this helps. If you do have other questions, feel that you need legal representation, or want legal advice, please feel free to email me directly at [email protected]. It's my pleasure to help in any way that I can. Thank you.

Re: Ex-Felon

NO. Your record is 'forever'. However, depending upon what it was for, and if no prison was sentenced, and if you successfully completed all terms of probation, you might be able to get it 'expunged' so that the record shows conviction reversed and charges dismissed. That means you would be able to say 'no' to convictions on most employment applications. Feel free to contact me if serious about trying to do so.

Re: Ex-Felon

Five years after your parole ends, assuming you'e stayed out of trouble, you (your attorney) can apply to the court for a Certificate of Pardon and Rehabilitation. If you didn't do actual state prison time, it probably wasn't a felony, in which case the remedy is to have your attorney move the court to have your offense 1) declared to be a misdemeanor, and 2) expunged under PC 1203.4.

Re: Ex-Felon

A felony won't automatically come off your record, such as a driving offense comes off your driving record after 10 years. You have to do something affirmatively to have it removed from the public record.

When you have a felony conviction you have a few options depending how "off" your record you want the conviction to be. Also, that assumes you don't have a felony that is prohibited from the following remedies. There are certain sex offenses that are prohibited by law from being expunged.

The first option is what is commonly called an expungement. That is provided for under Penal Code section 1203.4 (if you were granted probation) and 1203.4a if you weren't granted probation and went straight to prison with no probation.

Under 1203.4 the process is that you (or your attorney) files the request with the court. If you at the time you file your papers you are not on probation anywhere else, or having charges pending somewhere else and haven't had a probation revocation the court does not have any discretion to deny your request, meaning they have to say yes. If you have had a probation revocation the judge doesn't have to say yes, but you are entitled to a hearing on the matter so that you can explain to the judge why you should receive the grant.

The effect of a 1203.4 grant is that your plea of "guilty" or "no contest" is withdrawn, a plea of "not guilty" is entered and the case is dismissed. You no longer have a criminal conviction. When you add a 17b motion prior to that your felony is reduced to a misdemeanor first.

If you received a 1203.4 grant you are not necessarily back in the place you were before the felony ever existed. It doesn't allow you the right to carry a gun, if you are running for public office you still have disclose the felony and certain types of employment that require the life scan fingerprint background checks will show the felony and the later expungement. This is not an exaustive list of all the effects of the 1203.4 grant, but some for example.

Following a 1203.4 or a 1203.4a you can apply for a certificate of rehabilitation and if that is granted it automatically is forwarded to the Governor for a pardon request.

That is the long winded and not complete answer to your question. If you are interested, you can look on Findlaw at the statutes under Penal Code section 1203.4 to see the criteria for such a motion and the prohibitions to such a motion to see where your offense falls in that criteria.

Good luck,